BCT Editorial – 5/18/06

This page was last updated on May 18, 2006.

Go figure; Editorial; Beaver County Times; May 18, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“It turns out there is a direct correlation between tax cuts and federal spending over the last 25 years, but not in the way you might think.

“Philadelphia Inquirer business columnist Andrew Cassel noted in a recent column that since ‘1981, under Democratic and Republican control, tax cuts have led to more federal spending, not less. Only after taxes went up in the early ‘90s did Congress rein in spending.’

[RWC] There are at least two problems with this paragraph.

First, it actually attributes greater spending to tax cuts. That’s absurd. Government always finds a way to spend more, whether it has the supporting revenue or not. I can guarantee spending would have increased without the tax cuts.

Second, let’s look at the statement asserting, “Only after taxes went up in the early ‘90s did Congress rein in spending.” There were no spending cuts. In constant dollars, spending increased $536 billion from 1990 to 2000; that’s nearly a 43% increase! I don’t know about you, but in my world, a 43% increase doesn’t meet the definition of “reining in spending.”

“You’d think it would be the other way around. But given the upside-down world of Washington today, nothing makes sense any more when it comes to taxes and spending.”

[RWC] Times editorials have expressed displeasure with tax cuts for quite a while. Given this editorial, when can we expect to see an editorial asserting that the only way to reduce spending is to increase taxes?